The entire structure of industrial safety had to adjust accordingly. If this new energy source was to be cleaned up for public use, then there would have to be new materials handling procedures, new laws and regulations on the federal level, powerful new government agencies, new controls on every aspect of this prospective industry, and a great deal of secrecy. Unlike with the radium adventure, entrepreneurs, swindlers, amateurs, and fake doctorates would not feel invited to participate. The world had changed, and simple republican democracy was not what it used to be.
Technically, the first public demonstration of nuclear fission by dropping two nuclear weapons on Japan was not an atomic accident, but these events would permanently harden some opinions and perceptions for future nuclear mishaps. The A-bomb campaign was seen as a sure and quick way to bring the war to an end with a minimum number of casualties, but, to be completely honest, it was also a large-scale science experiment. The only hard data that existed concerning the effects of radiation on human beings were studies of the deaths and injuries from radium ingestion. Most scientists working on completion of atomic bomb development speculated that most of the deaths from their new weapon would be from flying bricks and glass as cities were flattened, and not by the radiation from fission or the radioactive byproducts of fission. Yes, thousands of civilians would die, but how was that different from fire-bombing Tokyo, which had killed over 100,000 people? By the end-time, half the capital city was in ashes, with care taken not to bomb out the Imperial Palace.[25]
When the atomic bombs were ready to deploy, just about every city in Japan had been bombed to pieces, with a few exceptions. Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki had been purposefully spared. These were the target cities for the atomic bombings, with Hiroshima at the head of the list. It was a little jewel of a city, with 350,000 residents, the Japan Steel Company, Mitsubishi Electric Manufacturing Company, and Headquarters of the Second Army Group, tasked with defending the island of Kyushu from the coming Allied invasion. It was untouched and in perfect condition.[26] There was no sense in dropping the A-bomb on Tokyo, as there was hardly anything left to destroy, but to hit a spared city would yield data as to the destructive power of a single bomb-strike, aimed right at the center. As an experiment, it would end the speculation and guesswork about the effects of fission radiation on human beings and man-made structures, and it would give a calibration for future military operations. The Hiroshima mission consisted of three B-29 heavy bombers: the Enola Gay, carrying L-11, or “Little Boy,” The Great Artiste, carrying the yield measurement instrumentation, and Necessary Evil, with the observers and the cameras.
Three instrument pods, having parachutes to slow their descent, were dropped from The Great Artiste and synchronized with the bomb-drop from Enola Gay with a radio signal. The pods were equipped with radiation counters and barometric instruments, each with a radio channel sending data continuously back to the airplane, where they were recorded. Necessary Evil had a Fastax high-speed motion picture camera, shooting 7,000 frames per second, and a still camera recording images of the explosion. A debriefing of the crew, after-action photographs at high altitude, and eventual ground-level evaluations came later. The initial data unraveled by the scientists was sobering, and it took some of the euphoric edge off the celebration.
To maximize the “shock and awe,” no leaflets were dropped warning Japan of an impending A-bomb attack, and security was so tight on Tinian Island, the base for atomic operations, that most of the Army Air Force personnel could only guess what was going on.[27] However, the surprise was not as complete as one might think.
Tinian, captured from the Japanese in July 1944, was a sugar-cane plantation just south of Saipan in the Marianas Island Chain. Flat as a pool table, it was an ideal spot for launching heavy bombers against the main island of Japan. Iwo Jima, another small island even closer to Japan, had been recently taken in murderous fighting, and it was used as an emergency landing base for the heavy stream of B-29s flying out of Tinian. The special task of building and testing the nuclear devices was assigned to the 1st Technical Service Detachment of the 509th Composite Group, and they were stationed in isolation from the rest of the Air Force at the extreme northern end of the island. The bomb assembly areas were literally overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This unique job, carried out by a combination of military personnel and civilian scientists, was named Project Alberta.
The island had been thoroughly cleansed of Japanese soldiers before the two airfields were built and the Air Force was moved in, or so it was hoped. Actually, there remained a contingent of Japanese observers, and their only mission was to remain invisible, be aware of everything that was going on, and report these findings by radio back to the home island. The Alberta personnel first became aware of this when a freshly washed shirt, left on a tent to dry, vanished overnight. It had been pilfered by an observer who needed a shirt. Turns out, there was a high area in the middle of the north end of the island, about 440 feet above sea level, consisting of coral cliffs, pocked with caves and tunnel entrances. At night, the observers would quietly come down out of the caves and into the 509th area to take notes.
These detailed examinations were useful. The next morning, Tokyo Rose, an English-language radio variety show originating somewhere in Japan, would casually mention details about what was going on at the north end of Tinian Island, broadcasting to the entire Allied force. She apparently knew more than the average sailor, and, grappling for an explanation, some seriously credited the charming radio announcer with clairvoyance. The Japanese, from the Imperial Emperor on down, knew that some special weapon was being prepared. It would take few planes to deliver it, and they even knew which planes would fly the mission and when they took off. Was it a new form of nerve gas? Perhaps it was a powerful anesthetic to be delivered by airplane, and the Americans planned to put everyone on the island of Honshu to sleep, then just walk ashore and take over.
Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, the man in charge of the bombing operation, grew concerned at the accuracy of the radio programs, and he had the markings on his plane, the Enola Gay, changed at the last minute. Before the paint had dried, Tokyo Rose announced it to the rest of the listening world, describing the upward arrow in a circle on the tail. Her omniscience could be spooky.[28]
25
It was reasoned that the occupant of this palace, Emperor Hirohito, would be instrumental in issuing an expected surrender. However, on July 20, 1945 a single B-29 strategic bomber dropped a replica of the Fat Man atomic bomb containing 6,300 pounds of high explosive (baratol) from 30,000 feet with the bomb-sight cross-hairs on the geometric center of the imperial residence. It was a clean miss. In the weeks before Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, 49 of these “pumpkin bombs” were dropped on Japan, killing an estimated 400 people and injuring 1,200, as practice for the A-bomb mission. With the random aiming uncertainties of high-altitude bombing, the only way to ensure that the Emperor would not be hit was to aim directly at him.
26
The city was unmolested by aerial bombs, but it was not exactly in pre-war condition. That summer before the A-bomb was dropped, school children, aged 11 to 14 years, had been mobilized into a demolition force, tasked with tearing down all the houses or businesses on certain streets. As had been witnessed in other cities many times during this last year, a few B-29s carrying incendiary bombs could wipe out a Japanese city just by starting fires. Japanese houses were notoriously flimsy and made of flammable materials, and multiple ignition points would quickly overwhelm any firefighting effort. Entire streets leveled to the ground were to act as firebreaks, preventing the spread of fire over the entire city by creating zones of nothing burnable.
27
Once the heavy bombing campaigns started on Japan in 1944, it was standard procedure to drop leaflets warning the population to evacuate. This was good military practice, because it was possible to partially empty out a city and send the residents fleeing to the hills. The war-material factories would thereby lose the workforce, and vital production would come to a stop. Given vague warnings of future bombing raids, 120,000 people of the 350,000 population evacuated Hiroshima prior to the A-bomb attack.
28
Tokyo Rose was a generic name given to any of about a dozen English-speaking women on the NHK propaganda channel, transmitting popular American music, radio skits, and carefully slanted battle news. Listening between the lines, the average soldier could gauge how badly it was going for the Japanese forces by the daily news from Rose. This particular announcer was possibly Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American citizen who was caught in Japan at the beginning of the war. Convicted of treason in 1949, Toguri was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977.